Private Detective Hamilton Hornee ["the e's are silent"] is hired by the Bank of Wabash to find the lost child of explorers who were slain in Africa by natives 15 years earlier. If the child is alive, she will be 21 years old and would inherit her father's multi-million-dollar estate. Hornee leads the expedition to find her, accompanied by his assistant, Jane. Also in the party are Max and Doris Matthews, cousins of the late millionaire who are next in line to inherit the fortune; Tender Lee, a newspaper columnist; and zoologist Stanley Livingston, who is attempting to prove the existence of Nabucco, a great white gorilla. Hornee engages as a guide once-famed hunter and explorer, Kenya Adler, an alcoholic who leads the party into the hands of the Meshpokas, a feared African tribe. The ruler of the Meshpokas is the lost child, Algona, and she receives her inheritance. Livingston's gorilla is in reality an escaped Nazi war criminal dressed in an ape suit. Algona releases the whole party except Hornee, whom she persuades to remain with her in the jungle.